Of German birth but living in Quebec, Theodore Frederic Molt was a music teacher and author of an English/French bilingual treatise on music. In late 1825, he became what is believed to be the only Canadian to meet Beethoven. Molt requested a souvenir to take back on his journey of 3,000 hours, and on 16 December 1825, Beethoven gave him an autograph canon on the text “Freu’ dich des Lebens!” or “Enjoy Life!” (WoO 195). The date was also Beethoven’s 55th birthday.
It’s not clear what happened to the autograph score of the WoO 195 canon, but the bottom of page 13 of a 1887 book by Gustav Notebohm transcribes the canon from how appeared in Beethoven’s sketchbooks:
[books.google.com/books?id=2TYDA…]
The score published by Breitkopf & Härtel is basically the same except that a dal segno sign appears at the beginning of the third measure. This indicates that the second voice of a canon begins at that point.
#Beethoven250 Day 356
Canon “Freu’ dich des Lebens” (WoO 195), 1825
A realization of Beethoven’s music as a canon.